Torlos spread his hands eloquently. "That is the history of our war. Can you wonder that my people were when your ship appeared? Can you wonder that they you away? They were of the men of Sator; when they saw your weapons, they were for their civilization.
"On the other hand, why should the men of Sator fear? They that our of would not permit us to make a attack.
"I that my people you away, but can you them?"
Arcot had to admit that he not. He to Morey. "They were in us from their cities; has them that it's the way. A good is always the best defense.
"But has me that, Torlos, I have to eat. I wonder if it might not be a good idea to a little too—I'm bushed."
"Good idea," Morey. "I'll ask Wade to while we sleep. If Torlos wants company, he can talk to Wade as well as anyone. I'm for some sleep myself."
Arcot, Morey, and Fuller to their rooms for some rest. Arcot and Morey were tired, but after an hour, Fuller rose and to the room where Wade was with Torlos.
"Hello," Wade him. "I you were going to join the Snoring Chorus."
"I to, but I couldn't in tune. What have you been doing?"
"I've been talking with Torlos—and with success. I'm the of communication," Wade said enthusiastically. "I asked Torlos if he wanted to sleep, and it that they do it regularly, one day in ten. And when they sleep, they sleep soundly. It's more of a coma, something like the of a or a possum.
"If you want to do with Mr. John Doe, and he to be asleep, your will have to wait. It takes something to wake these people up.
"I a one of my while I was going to college. He was totally of the in the thing. He said: 'I've got to go to more lectures. I've been a of sleep.'
"He them to be totally thoughts, but the of us his habits, and we almost ourselves out laughing.
"I was just what would if a Nansalian were to off in class. They'd have to call an or something to him home!"
Fuller looked at the giant. "I it. One of his would just him under his arm and take him on home—or to the next lecture. Remember, they only about four hundred on Nansal, which is no more to them than fifty is to us."
"True enough," Wade agreed. "But you know, I'd to have him those arms of his about me. He might excited, or or something, and—squish!"
"You and your imagination." Fuller sat in one of the seats. "Let's see if we can't a three-way going; this guy is interesting."
Arcot and Morey nearly three hours later, and the Earthmen ate their breakfast, much to Torlos' surprise.
"I can that you need more food than we do," he commented, "but you only ate a hours ago. It like a amount of food to me. How you possibly in your cities?"
"So that's why they don't have any farms!" Fuller said.
"Our food is out on the the cities, where there is room," Arcot explained. "It's difficult, but we have to help us. We have the type of city you have, however, for we need huge of food. If we were to seal ourselves our as your people have to protect themselves from enemies, we would to death very quickly."
"You know," Morey said, "I'll have to admit that Torlos' people are a higher type of than we are. Man, and all other animals on Earth, are of the plant world. We're of producing our own foods. We can't energy for ourselves. We're on plants.
"But these men aren't—at least not so much so. They at least their own energy by from the air they breathe. They all the best of plants, reptiles, and mammals. I don't know where they'd be biologically!"
After the meal, they to the room and themselves into the seats. Arcot the fuel gauge.
"We have of lead left," he said to Morey, "and Torlos has me that we will be able to more on Nansal. I we him how the space works, so that he can tell the Nansalian scientists about it from personal experience.
"In this sun's field, we'll a of power, but as long as it can be replaced, we're all right."
Turning to the Nansalian, Arcot pointed out the little of light that was Torlos' home planet. "Keep your on that, Torlos. Watch it when we use our space drive."
Arcot pushed the little red to the notch. The air around them with power for an instant, then space had itself.
The point that was Nansal to a disc, and then it was toward them, up to meet them, its with speed. Torlos it tensely.
There was a crash, and Arcot open the in alarm. They were almost again as the about them.
Torlos had been nervous. Like any man so effected, he had his muscles. His had into the hard plastic of the arm on his chair, and it as though it had been put the of a press!
"I'm we weren't hands," said Wade, the plastic.
"I am very sorry," Torlos humbly. "I did not to do that. I myself when I saw that at me so fast." His was on his face.
Arcot laughed. "It is nothing, Torlos. We are at the of your hand. Wade wasn't worried; he was joking!"
Torlos looked relieved, but he looked at the arm and then at his hand. "It is best that I keep my too-strong hands away from your instruments."
The ship was toward Nansal at a slow rate, less than four miles a second. Arcot toward the for two hours, then to decelerate. Five hundred miles above the planet's surface, their cut the ship into a to allow the to check their speed.
The to up, and he closed the screens to cut the from it. When he opened them again, the ship was over the of the planet.
Torlos told Arcot that by the of the surface of Nansal was land. There was still of water, for their were much than those of Earth. Some of the were thirty miles over areas—hundreds of square miles. As if to compensate, the land were with ranges, some of them over ten miles above sea level.
Torlos, his shining, the Earthmen to his home city, the of the world-nation.
"Is there no traffic the here, Torlos?" Morey asked. "We haven't any ships."
"There's traffic," Torlos replied, "but you have come in to the north, well away from the routes. The must be with as well, and and are to look as much as possible so that the enemy can not know when ships of are present and when they are not, and their are more easily off. They are to live off our while they are here. Before we the magnetic device, they were to fuel from our ships in order to make the return journey; they not for the trip."
Suddenly his broadened, and he pointed out the window. "Our city is that next range of mountains!"
They were at a of twenty miles, and the range Torlos was off in the distance, almost the horizon. As they approached them, the to slowly as their shifted. They to about on one another like things, larger and from to blue-green, and then to a rich, emerald.
Soon the ship was over them. Ahead and below, in the of the mountains, a great city, the largest the Earthmen had yet seen. As they approached, they see another it—the city was a cone! They the of two centuries earlier, by a ridge.
"Ah—home!" Torlos. "See—that idea is new. It was not thus when I left it, years ago. It is growing, growing—and in that new section! See? They have colors on all the buildings! And already they are out to the left for a third cone!" He was so that it was difficult for Arcot to read his coherently.
"But we won't have to more fortifications," Torlos continued, "if you will give us the of the you use!
"But, Arcot, you must in the now; and deposit me in the hills. I will walk to the city on foot.
"I will be able to identify myself, and I will soon be the city, telling the Supreme Three that I have and peace for them!"
"I have a idea," Arcot told him. "It will save you a long walk. We'll make the ship invisible, and take you close to the city. You can drop, say ten from the ship to the ground, and continue from there. Will that be all right?"
Torlos that it would.
Invisible, the Ancient Mariner toward the city, stopping only a hundred from the of the magnetic wall, near one of the stations.
"I will come out in a one-man flier, slowly, and at low altitude, toward that there," Torlos told Arcot, pointing. "Then you may visible and me into the city.
"You need no from my people," he them. Then, smiling: "As if you need from the hands of any people! You have proven your ability to yourselves!
"Even if my people were inclined, they would have been by your from the Satorians. And they have all about it by now through the of our spies. After all, I was not the only Nansalian there, and some of the others must surely have in the ships that ran away after I the city." Arcot the in his mind as he of the that his of the city had killed some of his own people.
Torlos paused a moment, then asked: "Is there any message you wish me to give the Supreme Council of Three?"
"Yes," Arcot. "Repeat to them the offer we so to the Commanding One of Sator. We will give them the which the city out of the ground, and, as your people have seen, also a down. We will give them our beam, which will melt anything the material of which this ship is made. And we will give them the knowledge to make this material, too.
"Best of all, we will give them the of the most energy to mankind; the energy of itself. With these in your hands, Sator will soon be peaceful.
"In return, we ask only two things. They will cost you almost nothing, but they are to us. We have our way. In the of space, we can no longer our own galaxy. But our own Island Universe has which be on an plate, and we have taken of it which your can with their own to help us our way back.
"In addition, we need more fuel—lead wire. Our space drive not use up energy in the presence of a field; most of it is into our coils, with very little loss. But we have used it times near a large sun, and the power goes up exponentially. We would not have to home if we to into any more trouble on the way."
Arcot paused a moment, considering. "Those two are all we need, but we would like to take more, if your Council is willing. We would like of your books and and other of your to take home to our own people.
"That, and peace, are all we ask."
Torlos nodded. "The you ask, I am sure the Council will agree to. It little payment for the you to do for us."
"Very well, then. We will wait for you. Good luck!"
Torlos and jumped out of the airlock. The ship rose high above him as he visible on the plain below. He was toward the city in great of twenty feet—graceful, easy that his power.
Suddenly, a ship was from the city toward him. As it down, Torlos stopped and with his arms, then he with his hands in the air.
The ship above him, and two men thirty to the ground and questioned him for minutes.
Finally, they to the ship, which to ten feet, and the three men to its door and entered. The door shut, and the ship toward the city. The magnetic opened for a moment, and the ship through. Within seconds, if was out of sight, in the air traffic above the city.
"Well," said Arcot, "now we go to the and wait."
